Hi there!

[Kevin Johnson]

Samantha and I were sitting eating dinner out and she was mentioning getting charlie horses (muscle cramps in the legs) at night. We had previously tied this to potassium deficiencies.

So -- TO THE CLOUD !

She spoke into her phone and it generated a list of 13 potassium rich foods. We discussed them back and forth and she said that she liked soy beans (edamame).

Wait for it...

She went to close the results and immediately a screen display for soy beans popped up.

Cue theme music from X-Files. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAAlDoAtV7Y



I tease her to remember that her phone is always listening. But I am quite serious.

[Nick Campagna]

Know that Google monitors searches, and push advertises based on that. O cookie from an adsearch company might also be set. Clear your cookies !

[Kevin Johnson]

Know that Google monitors searches, and push advertises based on that. O cookie from an adsearch company might also be set. Clear your cookies !

You're missing that Google displayed the one item she said she liked out of the 13 presented. She did not click on soy beans rather only mentioned this out loud. It is a logical extension for Google to develop "cookies" that are derived from voice or speech analysis -- obviously the system is "intelligent enough" to understand the query so analyzing the spoken remarks about the search are trivial. Things are simply moving along a tad faster than I suspect people think they are.

[dieselgeek]

I had something scarily similar happen to me yesterday. Sitting on the plane next to a coworker, I mention wanting larger capacity replacement batteries for my Samsung phone. He searched on amazon and found that someone makes them. 5 minutes later I'm on my phone, open up Facebook, and the top "suggested ad" is for replacement extra capacity batteries for my exact phone.

[Kevin Johnson]

I had something scarily similar happen to me yesterday. Sitting on the plane next to a coworker, I mention wanting larger capacity replacement batteries for my Samsung phone. He searched on amazon and found that someone makes them. 5 minutes later I'm on my phone, open up Facebook, and the top "suggested ad" is for replacement extra capacity batteries for my exact phone.

Try mentioning some slightly redacted proprietary information and mentioning that you sure would like a new Mustang. "Ring !!!" Head-hunter with a special signing bonus.

Humour aside, I hope company execs are paying attention. Note in your case that other phones that have made associative identifications can identify you. Maybe just voice print analysis, though,

Perhaps a new security app should be to disable the microphone, speaker and cameras. I doubt that will be allowed to fly under continually morphing TOS. Lets wait and see.

Oh, side note to Skynet: I would sure appreciate higher fidelity connections when I talk to my mother. Could you work on that? Pin-drop level? Thanks.

[GARY C]

WOW! how do threads get so off base so fast?

Water, Water, Water!

I would also suggest that you look into natural foods for circulation, you will find spices like Turmeric, Garlic, Ginger and the heart of Pineapple...and a few others, I started looking into this about a year ago and introduced these into my diet where ever possible and found that they work, I also just received a mailer from what has been a reputable source for my vitamins, they have a new joint pain herb that includes Turmeric...

I have found that normally if you research a vitamin/natural resource for what you need you will find that you can get it from foods you don't normally eat...unfortunately it really requires you to grow your own because what you get from a store no longer has any of the nutrition you need.

If you don't believe me, than find a source for grass fed beef and range fed chickens or raise your own (Best Choice) and compare texture and taste, The grass fed beef I get requires no seasoning NONE! and taste better than any piece of meat I've eaten, the eggs from the chickens I raise have thicker shells, darker yokes and taste better than anything you can buy in a store!

Grow 1 naturally raised tomato plant and then compare your tomato to a store bought one...you will not want store bought food again.

Also give this some thought. http://www.colonhealthinfo.com/diet/separation_diet.htm

[Kevin Johnson]

Hi Gary,

She has numerous food allergies and in many cases she reacts differently to medicine than most people (wide spectrum of side effects). Bananas work well for potassium but are high sugar so edamame looks like a good choice (and she likes it).

But, no, the thread did not go off track. The main emphasis is that with speech recognition technology people need to understand that what they say near a phone is not private anymore. And it does not have to even be your phone.

https://www.google.com/search?sourceid= ... artificial

Update: Though DeepMind may not be a household name in tech, sources in the artificial intelligence community describe the company as a formidable AI player and say it has been aggressively recruiting in the space. One source said DeepMind has a team of at least 50 people and has secured more than $50 million in funding. This person described DeepMind as “the last large independent company with a strong focus on artificial intelligence,” and said it competed with companies like Google, Facebook and Baidu for talent.

Multiple sources said the company has been developing a variety of approaches to AI, and applying them to various potential products including a recommendation system for e-commerce.

[Kevin Johnson]

Hi Randy,

We reviewed some of the more unusual side effects for some blood pressure medicine she just started taking and arm and leg muscle cramps are there so that is likely what has happened. It would be nice if edamame counteracted them but I suspect not.

Edit: Just asked Sam about quinine -- she has tried it in the past but it did not stop her leg cramps. This reoccurrence is fairly recent and seems to match the new medicine so I am crossing my fingers.

[woody b]

I get cramps, mainly leg cramps, but usually just during the Summer when it's hot and I sweat a lot .(water, water, water like Gary C said) I try to stay hydrated, and drink tonic water for the quinine......but........last November or so my wife and I decided we were going to start taking a multi vitamin every day. A couple weeks after starting the vitamins we were both having severe leg cramps and night. It wasn't hot weather, and I wasn't de hydrated. I guess too much of something can cause leg cramps, just like too little of something. We stopped taking the vitamins and our cramps went away. FWIW quinine is a mild muscle relaxer.


Regarding google, smart phones, tracking cookies ect. Big brother is watching.............and maybe big Sister, Mom, Pop, and some Aunts and Uncles LOL. I suspect some of the marketing companies know stuff about us that we don't even know ourselves. Discount cards (like "clubs" at grocery stores) is another way of tracking us. More and more places ask for your phone number while you're checking out. I tell them the number for my local post office. All of our local Little Caesars Pizza places ask for a phone number. If you tell they you don't have a phone they call the manager. The manager has to hit some kind of over ride on a register or they can't complete the sale.

[Kevin Johnson]

So far, stopping the one (of two) high blood pressure meds appears to have halted the leg cramps.

I think I might have mentioned before that Samantha had a reaction to the pneumonia vaccine shot about 18 years back. She started to perceive almost all foods as being rancid and she threw away a lot of what must have been perfectly good food. This progressed to most other smells being that of grey flannel cologne. Her doctor was concerned that she might have a brain tumor but an MRI came up clean. Then he said that this sort of reaction was a rare possible side effect of the vaccine. It went away after a hellish year, thank goodness, but it left her hypersensitive to smells, many of which actually work to make her angry. Nice.

She was one of the first people to report the muscle wasting from statins (before it was publicized and her doctor didn't believe her at the time). There appears to be a genetic component as her father received statins at the VA hospital and wasted away so much that he was on the verge of death. She told him about her reaction and he had to fight the doctors to take him off them. They relented and he recovered. Scary. You have to keep in mind that some doctors don't believe what you are telling them.

[GARY C]

Hi Gary,

She has numerous food allergies and in many cases she reacts differently to medicine than most people (wide spectrum of side effects). Bananas work well for potassium but are high sugar so edamame looks like a good choice (and she likes it).

But, no, the thread did not go off track. The main emphasis is that with speech recognition technology people need to understand that what they say near a phone is not private anymore. And it does not have to even be your phone.

https://www.google.com/search?sourceid= ... artificial

Update: Though DeepMind may not be a household name in tech, sources in the artificial intelligence community describe the company as a formidable AI player and say it has been aggressively recruiting in the space. One source said DeepMind has a team of at least 50 people and has secured more than $50 million in funding. This person described DeepMind as “the last large independent company with a strong focus on artificial intelligence,” and said it competed with companies like Google, Facebook and Baidu for talent.

Multiple sources said the company has been developing a variety of approaches to AI, and applying them to various potential products including a recommendation system for e-commerce.

Kevin, what I presented was totally natural, I no longer eat many bananas after finding out what an actual banana is compared to what they sell us and call a banana...I use to eat at least 3 or 4 a day but never saw a difference in leg cramps..

When man alters a natural food to the point that it can no longer survive own it's own, is it actually natural or food anymore?

[GARY C]

BTW, sorry I missed the point...I forgot to write that on my last response

[rfoll]

When I get a Charlie horse, I find that if I stand up immediately, it will go away just as fast as it occurred. Kind of difficult when you are swimming. Drink your water.

[GARY C]

Mine were worse in the winter, I hated racing in the cold, at the end of a pass mine was so bad it took so concentration to stop the car, I remember getting pulled over coming home from the races (actually I was already pulled over from leg cramps) I was out walking around with my shoe off and the officer thought I had lost my mind...he told me to get a tag for my trailer and left kind of puzzled

rfoll, I agree with the water part 100%

[GARY C]

I get cramps, mainly leg cramps, but usually just during the Summer when it's hot and I sweat a lot .(water, water, water like Gary C said) I try to stay hydrated, and drink tonic water for the quinine......but........last November or so my wife and I decided we were going to start taking a multi vitamin every day. A couple weeks after starting the vitamins we were both having severe leg cramps and night. It wasn't hot weather, and I wasn't de hydrated. I guess too much of something can cause leg cramps, just like too little of something. We stopped taking the vitamins and our cramps went away. FWIW quinine is a mild muscle relaxer.


Regarding google, smart phones, tracking cookies ect. Big brother is watching.............and maybe big Sister, Mom, Pop, and some Aunts and Uncles LOL. I suspect some of the marketing companies know stuff about us that we don't even know ourselves. Discount cards (like "clubs" at grocery stores) is another way of tracking us. More and more places ask for your phone number while you're checking out. I tell them the number for my local post office. All of our local Little Caesars Pizza places ask for a phone number. If you tell they you don't have a phone they call the manager. The manager has to hit some kind of over ride on a register or they can't complete the sale.

You probably already know that to much coffee, tea or adult beverage can cause quick dehydration as well as some of these issues as well, I never had the cramp issues in relation to vitamins but the two that I take if taken together I will get a mild sinus headache feeling that others I know don't get...it could be in relation to something else I am doing...I don't know but thats why I will try different things to see what works and what doesn't because you don't know what your getting now days.